Tuesday, June 21, 2011
New Words~Wahoo!
Here is our latest video update...
Welcome ~ Merhba
How are you? ~ Kif int
I'm good, thanks ~ Tajjeb, Grazzi
And you? ~ U int?
Good, thank you very much ~ Tajjeb, Grazzi Hafna
Thanks for watching guys :) Like we said at the end of the video.. we bought our first tickets for our trip to Europe in the Fall! A one way ticket to Malta is about $1000, but a one way ticket to Rome is only $378.. from Rome to Malta we can get a plane ticket for $100 at the very most, so option two is obviously most economical. WAHOO CAN'T WAIT! I definitely can't wait to see the different sunsets and sunrises on that side of the World.. those are what remind us of Annabelle most!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Why Malta? Why Maltese?
Not many people know where Malta is or why we even want to learn Maltese.
Malta is an island located just south of Sicily, Italy. It's gorgeous.. and small. From one end of the island to the other is a mere 60km. My Nana and Nanu (Nana means Grandma in Maltese, Nanu means Grandpa in Maltese) lived nearly half their life in Malta and moved to Canada right before becoming pregnant with my Mom. While growing up, I learned plenty of Maltese as my Nana and Nanu were my babysitters. Yep, my Nana retired after my Mom had me to help my parents save on babysitting. European grandmas rock.
I have always wanted to visit Malta with my grandparents, but unfortunately my Nanu died 3 years ago due to esophageal cancer (cancer in the esophagus). He was given 2 months to live but was tortured by this cancer for 2 years. It was devastating, frustrating, and saddening. Since then I had planned on going to Malta with my Nana sometime after high school; however, in January of 2010, 7 months after high school graduation, I found out I was pregnant. What a blessing this pregnancy was! I watched my boyfriend turn from a boy to a man. In the back of my mind I knew this would postpone my journey to Malta with my Nana, but I really didn't mind. As long as I went before she became really ill and couldn't travel anymore. She was only 72 at the time (turned 73 this past December).. so I knew it had to be sooner than later. I planned everything out in my mind. We would have to wait until baby turned at least 1.5 - 2 years old because her first year of life would be spent with many doctor check ups, and I wanted to go before the terrible twos set in. So, my plan now changed to going to Malta sometime in 2012 instead of 2010. No problemo, I thought.
Then we found out we weren't going to leave the hospital with a baby. I was exactly 31 weeks gestation on August 2nd and had not felt my baby move at her usual times. The excited part of me thought, "Wow! This is great! Baby's getting so big that he/she doesn't have room to move around anymore! They must be really healthy!" ... 5 hours later I had an emergency cesarean section due to a concealed placental abruption.
So, I leave the hospital empty handed sometime in the beginning of August. My life has turned from awesome to schmuck. Everything sucks, my dreams are crushed, and I never want to get out of bed again.. until my boyfriend and lovely sidekick proposes the idea of taking a trip to Malta in 1 year. This was sometime in September of 2010. I got out of bed, called my Nana, and began to plan the trip. Our trip to Malta has now turned into an entire Euro Trip! We will be spending 2 weeks in Malta, 2 weeks in Greece (to climb Mt. Olympus), followed by 1 month of backpacking through numerous other European countries. It's all very exciting.. heart wrenching because we have to do it without our Annabelle, our little monkey, our pretty girl.. but there is still a small piece hidden inside of me that is excited.
When I go to Malta in October I know that I will be surrounded with love by distant family members. I can't wait! This is going to be one of the best adventures of my life (the only other "best" adventure was my pregnancy).. and, to make it even better, we have to learn some basic Maltese! I can understand most because my Nana and Nanu always spoke Maltese around the house.. but I can't speak it for the life of me. I have 14 more days left to learn this language before we move on to a different 30 day challenge. I can do it, I WILL do it!
I love you Annabelle.
Malta is an island located just south of Sicily, Italy. It's gorgeous.. and small. From one end of the island to the other is a mere 60km. My Nana and Nanu (Nana means Grandma in Maltese, Nanu means Grandpa in Maltese) lived nearly half their life in Malta and moved to Canada right before becoming pregnant with my Mom. While growing up, I learned plenty of Maltese as my Nana and Nanu were my babysitters. Yep, my Nana retired after my Mom had me to help my parents save on babysitting. European grandmas rock.
I have always wanted to visit Malta with my grandparents, but unfortunately my Nanu died 3 years ago due to esophageal cancer (cancer in the esophagus). He was given 2 months to live but was tortured by this cancer for 2 years. It was devastating, frustrating, and saddening. Since then I had planned on going to Malta with my Nana sometime after high school; however, in January of 2010, 7 months after high school graduation, I found out I was pregnant. What a blessing this pregnancy was! I watched my boyfriend turn from a boy to a man. In the back of my mind I knew this would postpone my journey to Malta with my Nana, but I really didn't mind. As long as I went before she became really ill and couldn't travel anymore. She was only 72 at the time (turned 73 this past December).. so I knew it had to be sooner than later. I planned everything out in my mind. We would have to wait until baby turned at least 1.5 - 2 years old because her first year of life would be spent with many doctor check ups, and I wanted to go before the terrible twos set in. So, my plan now changed to going to Malta sometime in 2012 instead of 2010. No problemo, I thought.
Then we found out we weren't going to leave the hospital with a baby. I was exactly 31 weeks gestation on August 2nd and had not felt my baby move at her usual times. The excited part of me thought, "Wow! This is great! Baby's getting so big that he/she doesn't have room to move around anymore! They must be really healthy!" ... 5 hours later I had an emergency cesarean section due to a concealed placental abruption.
So, I leave the hospital empty handed sometime in the beginning of August. My life has turned from awesome to schmuck. Everything sucks, my dreams are crushed, and I never want to get out of bed again.. until my boyfriend and lovely sidekick proposes the idea of taking a trip to Malta in 1 year. This was sometime in September of 2010. I got out of bed, called my Nana, and began to plan the trip. Our trip to Malta has now turned into an entire Euro Trip! We will be spending 2 weeks in Malta, 2 weeks in Greece (to climb Mt. Olympus), followed by 1 month of backpacking through numerous other European countries. It's all very exciting.. heart wrenching because we have to do it without our Annabelle, our little monkey, our pretty girl.. but there is still a small piece hidden inside of me that is excited.
When I go to Malta in October I know that I will be surrounded with love by distant family members. I can't wait! This is going to be one of the best adventures of my life (the only other "best" adventure was my pregnancy).. and, to make it even better, we have to learn some basic Maltese! I can understand most because my Nana and Nanu always spoke Maltese around the house.. but I can't speak it for the life of me. I have 14 more days left to learn this language before we move on to a different 30 day challenge. I can do it, I WILL do it!
I love you Annabelle.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Found a VERY cool website to help us pick up our Maltese. My 4 wisdom teeth were extracted yesterday so it was difficult to learn these but the website makes it so easy. Well, kind of easy. It shows the word, how to spell it, and creates a game out of everything to help you remember--but there isn't an option to hear what the word sounds like. Darn!
Anyway, this is the website in case anyone wants to learn some different dialects:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Maltese.htm
Peace.
Becca
Anyway, this is the website in case anyone wants to learn some different dialects:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Maltese.htm
Peace.
Becca
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Where did May go?
May came and left so quickly.. we barely completed our challenge. We learned a few words, but didn't have the time to blog about them. This month I PROMISE I will be a blog-a-holic and give regular updates on our Maltese progress :) Yep, this month will be a continuation of last month's challenge... ahhhhh!
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